While lenders generally pursue foreclosures with dispatch, all may not be aware of the severe consequences lurking if the action is unduly delayed by the foreclosing party: elimination of interest for the period of delay. While this concept was always floating around—obscurely a creature of statute (mentioned, infra.)—encountering it in case law was rare. It is therefore reasonable to observe that the notion was just not wildly recognized; certainly not a typical risposte in a mortgage foreclosure action. Attorneys defending foreclosures have, however, in recent years awakened to the precepts and so foreclosing plaintiffs are encountering it to their dismay, at least where the plaintiff may have volitionally delayed the case. Four recent cases highlight this increasingly common peril.

A “Hidden” Danger

But first, lest lenders despair for the wrong reason, let us immediately emphasize that delay occasioned by a recalcitrant borrower or by pursuit of settlement avenues is not the variety of detainment which can lead to the mentioned draconian punishment. Rather, it is electional tarrying by the foreclosing party, unexplained or inexcusable delay, which elicits the cancellation of interest.